The Supernatural Realm
Magic, Psionics, and Innate Abilities. All equally powerful, yet wildly different in flavor and execution. Below is a detailed description of each power. Magic The manipulation of reality via the access of latent mana in the environment, generated by Ganemede's leylines, is an age-old practice of the world. Even before the Elder Days, the study and practice of magic has been a tradition utilized by many, if not all, races of Ganemede. As such, magic is widely accepted throughout the timelines of the world, serving as both weapon and shield, conflict and comfort, etc., to a world that uses it in most aspects of its daily life. During the Elder Days and the Age of Discord, magic was prevalent throughout the land. Most observed and recorded supernatural occurrences and activities were attributed to the manipulation of mana. During the Empire's Rising, on the human side of things, magic took a backseat to Arcanus, or magic technology. The study of magic still ranged throughout the Empire, but mostly as a precursor to create technology out of it. During the Fallout Years, magic had a comeback, but in a diminished fashion. In a world where Arcanus had reigned supreme, and was subsequently hated, magic became almost as rare as Innate Abilities and Psionics. Game Mechanics: To cast a spell in combat, a character must rely on the two Mystic Traits: these are Mystic Skill and Mystic Power. Mystic Skill can be likened to magical dexterity. Basically if the spell is successful or not. Mystic Power is the determinant to see just how well the spell works, or rather how powerful it is, if the Mystic Skill roll is passed. When compared to physical combat, Mystic Skill resembles Dexterity, while Mystic Power resembles Strength. Spells are magical skills. These are rolled in unison with Mystic Skill first, and then Mystic Power. Spells are unique, and thus their mechanics are also all unique. When applying for a mage character, players must elaborate the unique mechanics of their spells on their C sheets. Magical energies in Ganemede relate to the specific leylines that the planet possesses. These leylines produce specific patterns, all of which offer the diverse and unique mana necessary to manipulate different aspects of reality. Below is a list of all the leyline patterns and what sort of magical spells can be developed with them. *Perception: the manipulation of the senses, whether it's with illusions or muting/hiding something that's there. *Life: whether it's healing or necromancy, the patterns of Life manipulate the flow of life and death through magical power. *Probability: the pattern where the manipulation of chance is at its best. Whether it's Luck, Karma, or something else entirely, chance is at the whims of the mage when using this pattern. *Power: this pattern deals with potencies. Whether through the manipulation of physical power, psionic power, innate ability power, or even magical power, any ability may be boosted by this pattern. *Spirit: the pattern that manipulates elemental magics and Alignment. The Spirit pattern is perhaps one of the more widespread leylines used in Ganemede. * Precision: this pattern manipulates the realm of Dexterity, altering things such as aim and distance in combat. *Time: an otherwise untapped leyline, Time was manipulated by Ganemede alone, maintaining the flow of history. Recently, the flow of time has been altered, allowing for the creation of Wayfarers. Every Wayfarer is capable of manipulating the leylines of Time without having to be a mage, jumping from points in history with ease. Since then, mages have recently been allowed to dabble in small amounts with the pattern of Time. Rather than time traveling, they have begun to study with slowing down or speeding up miniscule pockets of time, especially in combat. Another powerful tool of this pattern is the ability to see into the past or future, such as what seers can now do. *Divination: through this pattern, mages are able to divine that which someone is hiding, or deducing what sort of abilities and weaknesses they have. The Divination leyline could also be used to make others forget things temporarily. * Dimensions: the pattern of dimensions is a powerful, dangerous, and oftentimes restricted leyline. The manipulation of mana pertaining to this pattern manipulates the flow of reality in relation to the alternate dimension known as the Further. Whether it's seeing into or accessing this realm, or bringing something back from either of them... *Matter: this pattern sounds simple in theory, but produces complex spells. Matter manipulates reality in relation to creating, destroying, or changing matter in the physical world. * Emotions: the pattern of the emotion can be used by mages to manipulate the moods of themselves or others. *Soul: the pattern that manipulates the soul. Rather self-explanatory. Casting a Spell Magic is a complex power, and as such when casting a spell, a player must roll 7's or higher to gain successes. However, mages possess a powerful ability with which to mitigate the complexities of magic, at the expense of taking a little longer to cast their spells. Therefore, mages have two options: 1. Speed Casting: Speed Casting requires no preparation at all. A mage must simply roll Mystic Skill + Spell to determine whether it's successful or not. If it is, rolling Mystic Power + Spell determines the strength of the effect of the spell. Both rolls have a difficulty of 7. 2. Ritual Casting: Ritual Casting requires that a mage gather more than the prerequisite mana from his or her surroundings to empower the spell being cast. This is done through the magical skill called Mana Collection. In order to work, the mage in question spends a round rolling Mana Collection + Mystic Power at a difficulty of 7. Should the player botch the roll, the mage takes one point in damage to his or her hit points. Should the spell succeed, the mage reduces the difficulty of the next spell by 1 as a default; every 3 successes rounded down also reduces the difficulty by one. On the next round, the mage is then capable of casting a spell with reduced difficulty, or holding on to that mana for another round of mana collection. However, for every round that a mage holds mana inside of his or her body, the mage takes that same amount of mana in damage. Synergies Mages are the byproduct of years of study and research. Many a mage considers him or herself a researcher first, often working to delve into the secret of Ganemede and the universe itself, rather than simply utilizing magic for combat. Thus, magic synergizes well with the Mental Attributes of a character. * For every 2 dots in Computation, rounded down, a mage may add 1 dice to his Mana Collection rolls. * For every 2 dots in Creativity, rounded down, a mage may add 1 dice to his Mystic Skill rolls. * For every 2 dots in Education, rounded down, a mage may add 1 dice to his Mystic Power rolls. Arcanus Magic technology, widely termed as Arcanus, did not appear in Ganemede until the Danek Empire began to form. Considering the timelines that the planet allows Wayfarers to visit, Arcanus does not appear until the Empire's Rising years and afterward. However, during the Fallout Years, the Order of Opeth actively hunts down and destroys Arcanus artifacts and their wielders... save for in the First Hierarchical City. While magic is a practice that takes years of study and preparation, the power of Arcanus comes from the fact that practically anyone can wield it. Magic technology becomes easier to use than magic itself. While not necessarily as powerful as the pure manipulation of mana, Arcanus nonetheless can become a fearsome force in itself. Game Mechanics Mages are capable of learning and enhancing as many spells as they like. This wide range is only afforded through years of study and scholarly pursuits. Arcanus artifacts are a bit more limited in this regard, as each one must possess its own Mystic Skill and Mystic Power Traits. What this means is that should a character acquire more than one Arcanus, he or she must develop and build up separate Mystic Skills and Powers for each artifact. Likewise, each Arcanus can only activate up to three spells per artifact. Arcanus artifacts store mana in special compartments located inside of each device. This mana is finite, and with each spell cast one mana is spent. Tracking of Mana is maintained in the Fuel section of the character's C sheet. The mana of each artifact is calculated by taking the Arcanus's Mystic Power and multiplying it by two. Once an Arcanus artifact's mana is spent, then said weapon can no longer cast its magic. However, should the artifact have a Mana Collection spell adjunct to it as part of one of three, then the player may choose to roll Mystic Power + Mana Collection to gather more fuel for the device. Mana Collection for Arcanus doesn't reduce difficulties, it only gather mana to power the device; never to exceed its fuel capacity. However, Arcanus have the capacity to gather mana gradually from the environment as well. Mana reserves are recharged once the combat scene is over. Lastly, Arcanus spell rolls have a difficulty of 6. Arcanus wielders may choose to spend extra mana to reduce this difficulty as well. For every two mana spent, the difficulty of the spell roll is reduced by one. Reductions cannot exceed more than half of the original difficulty cost. Arcanus Cores and Equipment An Arcanus is naught but a normal piece of equipment with a magic technology core within it. Should an Arcanus wielder's weapon be destroyed, only the weapon is actually destroyed; the Arcanus Core always remain with the wielder, ready to be implanted into a new weapon. Likewise, should you possess an Arcanus Wielder, whose Arcanus is embedded into a sword yet you buy a new one, you can remove the Core and embed it into the new sword. Psionics Psionic power is the ability to fully control one's mind in order to use the mental energy called Psi. Psi is generated by all sentient living beings that possess a mind, but only psions, through diligence and practice, learn to wield and control it. Like magic, psions tend to devote quite some time to the practice of controlling Psi. However, unlike mages, psions tend to be a secretive brood. Rather than banding together like the Commune, or basing an entire Empire on the control of magic technology, psionics is a closely guarded secretive power that not many have access to. Naturally some individuals learn its secrets on their own, wielding prodigious willpower to do so. Others are taught to by a master, or a tome of some kind. However, once the basics are learned, psions can and will branch off into their own selective use of Psi. During the Elder Days, psionic individuals hardly existed. And if they did, they kept their existence a secret. During the Age of Discord, psionic power became persecuted by magic and all its endorsers; however, the Andracian Pulse was comprised of quite a large number of psions. During the Empire's Rising and the Fallout Years, psionics became a little more widespread, and no longer suffered from persecution. Game Mechanics Psions rely on Fuel to use their abilities. This fuel is commonly and simply known as Psi. To use a psionic skill, a Psi point must be spent. A psion has a set amount of Psi for each day, which is determined by the number of dots on his or her Psionic Power multiplied by their current Caste. Each day a psion can regenerate their Psi pool up to the limits of what they can possess. Note: a psion can expend more Psi to lower the difficulty of a psionic roll. For every extra Psi that a psion uses, one point of difficulty is reduced. There is a limit to this, in that a psion may not reduce difficulties more than half of their original cost. Willpower A psion relies heavily on strength of will in order to enact his or her abilities. Therefore, Willpower becomes an important Attribute for any psion. This is best exemplified by the fact that if a psion's Willpower falls to 2 dots or less, they become unable to use their abilities. However, for every 2 dots rounded down on Willpower, a psion can add 1 additional point of Psi to his or her fuel. Unlike mages, who can boost their Mystic Traits and learn a myriad of spells without too much trouble, psions must devote time and effort to the study and progression of their own abilities. At the beginning of their journey in controlling Psi, psions cannot use their psionic abilities often, having a limited amount of Psi that they can use. However, as they gain experience in their respective fields, psions can progress from their current Caste to the next one. The Psionic Caste system has no names, it simply signifies how a psion passes through a threshold in their minds when it comes to controlling psi. Every psion begins play as an Initiate. A psion progresses from one Caste to the next by the expenditure of XP. Not the gaining of experience, but rather the player has to spend the XP on something before the psion can gain a Caste upgrade. * XP spent - Initiate * 20 - Adept * 40 - Psychic * 60 - Overmind * 100 - Mastermind * etc. The pattern was the total amounts of XP spent between the last two levels you obtained. Meaning... 40 (level 3) + 60 (level 4) = 100 (for level 5.) Much like with magic, psychic rolls rely on Psionic Traits. Psionic Skill represents how well you weave and control your psi powers. This can be compared to dexterity, for example. Your Psionic Power, however, determines how much strength is behind those rolls. In essence it's how well you affect something. Psionic roll difficulties are usually at the standard 6. Psychic Classes Psionics encompass the manipulation of nature through the power of the mind. Psions can wield their mental abilities akin to magic, for there are many flavors to the world of psychics: * Bio Feedback: this field embodies how a psion may be able to manipulate the human body through his or her abilities. Skills such as healing or inflicting biological damage to oneself or someone else are included here. * Mental Feedback: this field operates under the same principles as biofeedback, save that it's for the mind. Mindfeedback may be used to manipulate the minds of others or the mind of the psion itself for positive and/or negative effects alike. * Mind Shielding: psions can become highly effective defensive creatures. Mind Shielding revolves around this. Through their powers, a psion may be able to improve his or her mental and/or various other defenses. * Psychic Sensitivity: psions are drawn to one another, for they can be a very secretive bunch. Psychic Sensitivity is the way to go when you want to sense if there's another psion around and whatnot. Skills in this area may also serve to detect psionic tampering, whether active or lingering effects. And lastly, every mind has a distinct resonance to it. A psion may be able to identify someone by their mental resonance. Psions themselves exhibit larger than normal resonance, due to their heightened mental abilities. * Space Rip: Psions are adept at manipulating the fabric of space with their minds. Powerful skills such as teleportation (which works in a similar way to the innate ability version) or even creating a small pocket dimension fall in this category. Of special note are lingering effects of Space Rip skills. While a psion may be able to create a pocket dimension, said dimension will always have a kind of doorway, sensible to other psions, locked in our real world. Another psion may be able to cross through said doorway into the pocket dimension created by another. At the same time, the longer that a pocket dimension is added, the lingering doorway emits a resonance that acts as a beacon. One round passes, every psion within one mile of the doorway senses it. Two rounds, two miles. And so on. If a doorway lingers long enough, physical warpings of reality start to occur. Discolorations in the landscape, strange weather patterns, erratic animal behavior, etc. Space Rip skills usually cost a single psi, as normal; however, should a psion wish to use a Space Rip skill and landlock it, making it permanent in our reality, that skill will cost two psi instead of one; including if he or she wishes to lower difficulties. * Telekinetics: the manipulation of solid matter through one's will has always been a staple psionic skill. Such abilities fall under this category. * Telepathy: communicating via the mind is another very useful skill for psions. Such abilities fall within this field. Psionic Techniques and Amalgams Experienced psions can, over time, combine skills into a single and more powerful ability through Techniques. A Technique can be very resourceful, for it mixes both the dots and the effects of two skills into a single roll. However, Techniques are widely limited: # You can only combine skills of the same class. So, Biofeedback skills can only be combined with other Biofeedback skills, for example. # The second restriction would be that Techniques are gained through experience. Whenever a character advances a Caste, he or she can choose to combine two skills into a Technique. Only one Technique is gained per Caste advancement. # Third restriction is that once a Technique is created it cannot be broken off in reconsideration. Techniques are final. A final bonus to Techniques occurs every three Castes and is called an Amalgam. For example, once a psion reaches Caste 4, he can choose to create an Amalgam. After that, at Caste 7 another Amalgam can be created. An Amalgam is the same concept as a Technique, except that it can combine skills from different classes. For example, you can combine a Space Rip skill with a Telepathy skill if you so choose. Other than that, Amalgams operate under the same rules as Techniques. An Amalgam can't combine any skill that's already in a Technique, though. Innate Abilities By far, the most random and chaotic of supernatural powers are Innate Abilities. It is almost impossible for two creatures to possess the exact same powers. Each one usually has its own unique flavor. The most common of abilities are kinetics, which are the basic manipulation of a single element or factor, such as firekinesis. But even then, no two firekinetics will ever be the same. Innate Abilities began to become rather widespread during the Age of Discord. Feeling persecution, Innates usually kept their powers to themselves. During that era, they found some solace in Andracia. Afterward, Innates began to crop up more and more around the world. Game Mechanics Innate Abilities seem to somewhat function similarly to Psionics or Magic. The dots associated with them are Innate Ability Base, Innate Ability Negator, and Innate Ability Property. Innate Ability Base is treated as a Trait, which is then combined with an Innate Ability's Property to see how effective it proves to be. Innate Ability Negator always starts with 5 dots, and it represents a weakness that your Innate Ability possesses. Here is an example: Your character possesses the Innate Ability Firekinesis. You wish for your character to control any fire in the area, and thus you must buy an Innate Property called Manipulation. Any time that there's fire in your vicinity, your character can roll Innate Ability Base and the Innate Property Manipulation to move that fire about. If it's to attack a character, then naturally that character can attempt to dodge or use a buffer field, comparing his successes to yours to see whether it hits or not. If it does connect, you roll the same dice again to determine how many hit points your opponent has to remove from his pool. Aside from Manipulation, you wish for your character to actually manifest fire, in case you don't have any in the immediate vicinity. You would have to purchase another Innate Ability Property called Summoning. Each success manifests around a square foot of the element you want to summon. Some Kinetics may even change the properties of fire into something else, in case they encounter a being weak against some other element. Other kinetics may find themselves capable of teleporting or 'hopping' from one pool of fire to the next (provided they have some kind of immunity to fire as well of course). Each of these would require a new Property. As for a Negator, every Innate Ability must start with one, and it starts at 5. Suppose your Firekinesis has a weakness against water. If it's raining, or there is a large body of water nearby, your Firekinetic must first roll Innate Ability Base + Innate Negator. Every success increases the difficulty of all of your Firekinesis rolls by 1, until the weakness factor is removed from the scene. After character creation, a Negator may be bought as a Trait, to reduce those 5 dots to 4, then, 3, then eventually to a minimum of 1. A Negator may never be removed. Kinetics is just the bare bones of what an Innate Ability can be. There are very few limits to what an Innate Ability can do, unless of course they are deemed unfair or too powerful for the room. But that's at the discretion of the staff. Otherwise, if you wish to play a shapeshifter, a character that can fly, or a being with extranormal strength, you're free to do so.